An Eclectic Journal of Opinion, History, Poetry and General Bloviating

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Yawn—You Mean There Was a Primary in Illinois?

A voter--maybe--flocks to the Illinois Primary Polls.

Coming into this week
the media would have us believe that there was great excitement from one end of
the State of Illinois to the otherover a Presidential Primary election that finally “really matters.”Establishment favorite and delegate count
leader, Mitt Romney was coming off embracing
losses to Tea Party/Inquisition
favorite Rick Santorum in the Deep South.

Romney unloaded a ton of money on ads painting Santorum as a “Washington
insider” and “big spender.”Santorum
stumped the state, but especially conservative Downstate counties ratcheting up the culture war crazy at every stop.Newt Gingrich wandered around
bumping into the furniture to no good purpose—he was the only candidate who
made a McHenry County appearance despite
our reputation as a treasure trove of GOP
voters.Ron Paul got ignored and complained about it.

In the end Romney
romped to a convincing victory.Nobody
loves him.Most of his voters cannot
stand him.But Illinois Republican
voters, especially in the suburbs and Collar
Counties, are slightly less rabid than the new norm of the party.And they like “centrist” candidates who “can
win” a general direction.Despite Romney’s
own ever accelerating drift to the far right in search of votes, Illinois
voters probably decided that he really didn’t mean it and would correct to the
center before the election.

(99% of precincts reporting)

Mitt Romney

424,434

46.8%

Rick Santorum

317,869

35%

Ron Paul

84,433

9.3%

Newt Gingrich

72,059

7.9%

Other

9,055

1%

1.

But the big news is
that despite the best weather for Primary election in history and all of that
hype, Republican stayed away from the polls in droves.Record low turn-outs were reported across the
state, in most cases less than 25% of registered voters.Republican voters, especially conservatives have traditionally had a
reputation for crawling to the polls over broken glass if necessary.It’s how they sometimes win against greatly
numerically superior, but far less motivated Democraticand independent voters
in General Elections.Today, however the vast majority of
Republican voters surveyed he field of clowns piling out of the tiny car and
were deeply unimpressed.It is hard to
see how the charismatically challenged Romney will be able to rally them in
November, even against a Black/Muslim/Marxist/elitist/alien.

Barack
Obama is smiling in Washington
tonight.Not only will he not have to
expend unnecessary time and money keeping Illinois on the reservation this November,
but he garnered—once again—every delegate vote in the state for the DemocraticNationalConvention.Despite grumbling on the left, he will be
at the helm of a united party.The
Republicans, meanwhile, seem to be disintegrating in front of our eyes.

True, the Democratic
vote turn-out was also light.But there
were also, aside from some Congressional
races, few contests to excite voters.And those Congressional primaries largely had clear winners, most of
them entirely credible even against Republican incumbents this fall.

The most closely watched
Democratic race was in the new 8th District
centered on Chicago north and western suburbs Tammy Duckworth, the charismatic combat helicopter pilot who lost
both legs in Iraq and served as Obama’s Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs,
had an easy victory over Raja Krishnamoorthi, an
attractive candidate with a bright political future if he can get in a primary
he can win.Neither candidate went
negative during the campaign and Raja, as he is universally know, came out not
only graciously but enthusiastically for Duckworth.Duckworth will face an unhappy Representative Joe Walsh, the loudmouth
Tea Party favorite who found himself in an almost wholly new district.Walsh has not only attracted attention for
loopy appearances on Fox News but
for being a notoriously deadbeat dad.This will be Duckworth’s race to lose this
fall.With a ton of national money she
should cream Walsh.

The 2nd District stretching from the heart
of Chicago’s South Side deep into
the rural cornfield to the south even beyond the Collar Counties, attracted
attention because it pitted veteran incumbent Jessie Jackson, Jr.against
a respected former Congresswoman Debbie
Halvorson, who ran as a good-government reformer.Jackson became enmeshed in the Rod Blagojevich scandals.Although never charged, he has been
identified as the politician who allegedly dispatched a proxy to over campaign
cash in exchange for appointment to Barack Obama’s Senatorial
seat.He remains free, but under investigation by
the House Ethics Committee, because Federal prosecutors
evidently can’t prove that the agent acted with Jackson’s explicit prior
approval or knowledge.As if that wasn’t
enough, last year he was caught cheating on his independently powerful wife, Alderwoman
Sandi Jackson with a highly attractive Washington blonde.Either or both of those would sink the
average politician.But the two Jackson
kissed and made up and he remains extremely popular with his South Side
base.His steadfast promotion of a new
third airport south of the city has even attracted job hungry white voters in
the rural fringes.Halverson ran an
aggressive campaign that highlighted Jackson’s ethical problems.She also counted on the addition of new territory
in the south of the district to bring out white voters for her.In the end she could not beat the unanimous support
of the Democratic establishment from Obama on down or Jackson’s healthy war
chest.The Congressman blew Halverson
out of the water by a not-even-close margin of 71.2% to 28.8%.He will face a white Republican of no
consequence.

Out in the new 16th
District in western Illinois incumbent Republican Don
Manzullo faced a one term Tea Party Congressman Adam Kinzinger.Manzullo used to represent much of McHenry County, but lost the
whole eastern part of his district in re-apportionment and picked up unfamiliar
counties deep Down State.Despite a
poster-boy conservative record, Manzullo was painted as a go-along-get-along Republican
and the youth Kinzinger pasted him.Unfortunately no Democrat in the heavily Republican district filed for
the primary, although County Chairmen in
the district may now appoint a candidate.

Closer to
home are two other districts covering portions of McHenry County that Republicans are expected to hold in
November.In the new 6thDistrict, which includes a large chunk of Joe Walsh’s former turf Representative Peter Roskam was the
beneficiary when state and national Republican leaders leaned on Walsh not to
go head to head with another incumbent.Roskam, while not as flashy as Walsh, has a virtually identical
conservative voting record.He will now
face Democrat Leslie Coolidge, who won
a convincing outright majority in a three way race.

In the new
14th District, including a chunk of
McHenry County, another Republican incumbent, Representative Rep. Randy Hultgren will face Dennis Anderson, a former health care
services executive and Lake County
resident.Anderson easily turned back a
youthful Jonathan Farnick, who
once made a Quixotic challenge to
former Congresswoman Mellissa Bean.Anderson coasted to a 71.2% to 28.8% victory.

Both
Coolidge and Anderson will get solid support from local Democrats, but unless
one or both of them can convince the Democratic
National Congressional Campaign Committee or powerful and well-heeled super-pacs to divert money from
Duckworth, they will have a hard time making headway in the Red counties—that is unless the
National Republican ticket implodes, something that does not seem entirely
beyond the realm of possibility.

Locally
in McHenry County except for the two congressional races there was little to
excite voters.There were no local
contested races and Democrats were only on the ballot uncontested in County Board races.It is possible that candidates for County
offices and State Senate and House seats might yet get on the November ballot
by the caucus process.

The lack
of contests meant that the Democratic turnout was extraordinarily low.In fact the lowest in my more than 20 years
as a Precinct Representative.In my home precinct, Nunda Township 5, only 20 Democratic ballots were pulled.That is only half of a steady average of 40 votes
in Presidential primary years.

The Democratic Party of McHenry County will
meet tonight at 7 pm at McHenry County
College to discuss the results and plan for the upcoming campaign season.
The public is welcome to join us.